Opinion: Tararua Federated Farmers joins in careers day

Dannevirke High School and Reap organised a careers day for students interested in agricultural career options.

OPINION

Thanks to Dannevirke High School and Reap for organising a great careers day – it was really positive to be able to have conversations with students interested in agricultural career options.

As a farmer I was pleased to see that the next generation is engaged and keen on entering our sector. A big thank you also needs to go to Adam Hands and Zoe Reichardt who took time away from the farm to attend.

Before the event I asked if other ag groups would be present, and I was told “no” – which is fine because we’re all busy. Thankfully when I got there this just wasn’t the case. Silver Fern Farms, Fonterra, Vet Services Dannevirke, Horizons Regional Council, Tararua District Council and others were all there.

All of these organisations rely on farmers, and maybe this is where some education is needed as to how farmers are the very foundation of so many industries within our Tararua region.

Economics 101

Farmers play an important role in the Tararua District’s economy and we are big local employers. Without farmers most of the other attendees at the careers day just wouldn’t exist.

To give a few examples, we need the dairy farmers to supply the milk, to employ the driver, to take the milk to the Fonterra factory. We need the sheep, beef, deer farmers to get stock processed at our local plants like SFF in Takapau or Alliance in Dannevirke. Without farmers, we wouldn’t need as many vets.

The money from our agricultural and export sectors flows right through our entire community and we all see the benefits. When a farmer spends a dollar in town, it gets spent many times over, whether that’s at the local supermarket, the hairdresser, or the bakery.

We need farmers to be profitable so they can keep on spending in their community, employing people, and paying their rates to fund local infrastructure – like the roads that our goods travel on to the processors and then to our markets overseas.

Why do we want our goods heading off overseas? Two reasons:

NZ has a big debt with high-interest repayments. Farmers understand debt - banks are now imposing environmental as well as financial conditions on loans. What conditions might be imposed on NZ in the future?

To buy things we need foreign currency. TVs, computers, petrol, medicine, etc. March 2023 shows we spent $86.6 billion on imports while exporting $73 billion. Yes, our income from agricultural products being sold offshore has increased to over $50b, but we have increased the amount of “stuff” we are buying in, therefore now we have a trading deficit of approximately $13.6b.

During Covid we celebrated farmers and all the support services mentioned above, indeed they kept working so NZ had money to buy what was needed.

How can we now support farming to increase the money we earn overseas? Is it by allowing the use of new GM pastures that allow more grass to grow, which in turn produces more meat and milk without changing the number of animals?

What we do need is engaged and keen folk in our farming industries and from those I met in Dannevirke I believe there are plenty of opportunities for you if you choose a farming-related career.

Generators

Thanks to Yamaha for helping put some deals together to help get generators where needed. A generator to me is like a Feds subscription, you hope you won’t need it, great to know that if you do you can power up and continue farming, rather than stressing about not being able to operate your business.

• Sally Dryland is the co-president of Tararua Federated Farmers.